Wednesday, September 14, 2016

On Wednesday night, Donald Trump replayed some of his greatest foreign policy hits: take the oil, we wasted American lives in Iraq, he knows more than the generals. But his most widely-covered statements came with regard to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin:

[...]

... This is not the first time Trump has defended Putin as stronk like bool! before. Back in December, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough asked Trump about Putin killing journalists and invading countries. Trump’s answer: “He’s running his country, and at least he’s a leader. Unlike what we have in this country.” Scarborough then reiterated: “He kills journalists that disagree with him.” And Trump again: “I think our country does plenty of killing also, Joe, so, you know.”

This is pretty disreputable stuff. Putin is strong in the same way that Kim Jung Un, who just banned sarcasm in North Korea, is strong. He’s strong the way Stalin was strong. He’s a dictator. Dictators have the capacity to dictate. By definition, they’re strong. Have you ever heard of a weak dictator? For the love of God, they’re called strongmen in common parlance.

Now, if Trump had said that Putin is destroying America’s credibility internationally, and outplaying President Obama in doing so, that wouldn’t just be decent, that would be true. But he didn’t. He admires Putin’s savagery, which is why he defends Putin hacking American institutions (“nobody knows that for a fact”) and killing his opponents (“I think our country does plenty of killing also”). He thinks Putin is popular – which, it turns out, is easy to assure when you’re murdering your opponents. There’s a reason the Castros routinely win 100% of the vote in their “re-elections.” ...

1 comment:

cimbri
said...

It's not a problem. Bush said he looked into Putin's soul and that he was a good guy. Trump throwing a few compliments Putin's way, is just good diplomacy.

The actual origins of the alt-right's appreciation, of Putin's leadership, is that he isn't letting Russia get overrun by immigrants. We've all looked at the supposedly great conservative politicians in this county, and all they accomplished was a demographic nightmare for the right wing. Most NT conservatives know this, but still foolishly stand with guys like Shapiro, thinking nothing has to change. We had to break with the conservative movement - the results just weren't there.